IDF refusal

The price tag of opting out of the IDF - opinion

Switzerland has long maintained that citizens who do not serve in the military pay a special compensatory tax to the state.

HAREDI MEN protest against the jailing of yeshiva students who failed to comply with an IDF draft order, in May 2026.
HAREDIM BLOCK a road to protest the arrest of yeshiva students who failed to comply with an army recruitment order, near Bnei Brak, on Monday.

IDF should conscript Arabs to serve instead of haredi draft dodgers - opinion

 An illustrative image of haredi residents of Jerusalem's Ramat Eshkol neighborhood.

Haredi daycare bill: What is it and why should we care? - explainer

 An Israeli soldier operates during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024.

IDF reservist soldier who refuses to continue serving in Gaza speaks out


Grapevine August 16, 2023: Cut the talking

Movers and shakers in Israeli society.

 PRESIDENT ISAAC HERZOG receives from Michael Oren his visionary book ‘2048: The Rejuvenated State.’

Israel sorely needs reliable information on judicial reform effects - analysis

Eight months into Israel’s toxic debate over the judicial overhaul plan, it is emerging that in some cases honest information is being kept from the public and the decision-makers.

Anti-judicial reform demonstrators protest against the judicial reform in Haifa, on July 20, 2023.

Netanyahu, Gallant defend top army brass under fire on reservist refusal

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant urged people criticizing the IDf to come after him, while David Amsalem called for those behind protests to be imprisoned for life.

 Defense Minister Yoav Gallant seen at the IDF induction center in Tel Aviv on August 13, 2023

Has the IDF's people's army model collapsed? - opinion

A volunteer civilian army is possible only when a shared core of social values exists among citizens. But deepening social and political tensions has threatened this system.

 RESERVISTS SIGN a statement that they will not continue serving, as part of the protest against the judicial overhaul, in Tel Aviv, last month. The blue placard reads: ‘There cannot be a people’s army without democracy.’

What does Syria attack mean for impact of IDF reservist strike? - analysis

Did the likely IDF attack on Syria prove that somehow the air force is still able to carry out all of the many security needs the country relies on it on?

Smoke and flames rise over the Syrian border town of Kobani after an airstrike, October 20, 2014

New IDF recruits start service in shadow of judicial reform debate

Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asur: We have much more in common and which connects and unites us, along with love and kinship, than there is which separates and divides us.

Young Israelis arrive to the Israeli army recruitment center at Tel Hashomer, outside of Tel Aviv on March 17, 2020.

Most Israelis prefer compromise on judicial reform - poll

The new polling data from the Israel Democracy Institute shows that while most coalition voters support the reform and most opposition voters oppose it, most overall want compromise.

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Unity leader MK Benny Gantz are seen moving to shake hands in the Knesset amid the vote on the controversial reasonableness standard bill, in Jerusalem, on Monday, July 24, 2023.

IDF not ready for war, warns former Israeli military ombudsman

"Even today the army is disintegrating, after the volunteering is stopped it will be crushed," warned the former IDF official.

Maj.Gen.(Res.) Yitzhak Brick in National Criticsm Committee, December 12th, 2018.

Israeli settlers, ultra-Orthodox will pay for trampling over Israel - opinion

If they don’t rethink a new course, they will find themselves facing a majority that will stop supporting their continued prosperity, and perhaps their very existence.

 FINANCE MINISTER Bezalel Smotrich and United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni shake hands, as MK Ofir Katz, chairman of the government coalition, looks on at a meeting in the Knesset.

Judicial reform raises risk of war crime charges - ex-IDF int'l law chief

Former IDF international law division chief Col. (res.) Eran Shamir-Borer weighed in on the threat from the International Criminal Court.

 THE INTERNATIONAL Criminal Court in The Hague.